27 August 2013

Bio-isobutanol producer Gevo, Inc. held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its demonstration-scale
paraxylene (p-xylene) plant in Silsbee, Texas. The paraxylene facility is located adjacent to Gevo’s existing jet fuel plant in Silsbee, and establishes
the site as a biorefinery that will serve the renewable chemicals and drop-in biofuels markets.

Gevo has been working with The Coca-Cola Company since 2011 (earlier post) to deliver a new production
technology for renewable paraxylene, a key building block for producing
fully renewable PET for beverage bottles. Research and Development
support for this plant was provided by The Coca-Cola Company under a
Joint Development Agreement.

Gevo is also working with Toray Industries, Inc. to develop renewable
paraxylene, a building block for fully renewable polyester for
packaging films and fibers used in textiles, clothing and other
applications. Funding assistance for the construction of the paraxylene
plant was provided by Toray Industries, Inc., one of the world’s
leading producers of fibers, plastics, films, and chemicals.

Gevo and
Toray successfully produced fully renewable and recyclable
polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fibers and films from isobutanol at
laboratory scale in 2011.

Toray has also signed an offtake agreement
for paraxylene produced at the Silsbee facility. Toray will purchase
paraxylene from Gevo and will convert it into PET fibers, textiles and
films for scale-up evaluation and market development purposes.

In October 2012, Gevo filed a patent application for a method that provides a high yield pathway to 2,5-dimethylhexadiene from renewable isobutanol, which enables economic production of renewable p-xylene (and subsequently, terephthalic acid, a key monomer in the production of PET) from isobutanol.

We believe we have an elegant, viable route to fully-renewable,
non-petroleum derived PET and we are pleased that The Coca-Cola Company
and Toray have supported this work. Fully renewable PET has the potential to make the
world a better place by reducing our dependence on oil and the
environmental consequences associated with petroleum based raw
materials.

—Patrick Gruber, Gevo’s chief
executive officer

The majority of the world’s PET production is for synthetic fibers (in
excess of 60%), with bottle production accounting for around 30% of global demand. Gevo’s paraxylene, once converted to
bio-based PET, has high potential for any commercial application
currently served by petroleum-derived PET.